While the positive effect of economic integration on trade is commonly accepted, we still lack a proper understanding of the complex patterns behind this phenomenon. In particular, it is important to better understand how the structure of trade linkages evolves. This is because there are reasons to assume that countries within an economic integration agreement do not trade with each other on random basis. On the contrary, one may argue that they select trade linkages and this choice may be driven by various factors. In this paper we test two specific predictions that originate from the recent literature and which could be informative in this respect. First, we show that the size of the initial trade network is positively correlated with building new trade linkages. In other words, a greater initial number of trading partners facilitates establishing new connections. Second, we also provide some evidence in support of the hypothesis that the evolution of trade network for a given country depends on the trade network of its trading partners. In this case however, our results are slightly less robust.


Abstract The purpose of this paper is to analyse, in terms of presence, determinants and purposes, the misrepresentation of expected revenues during budget formulation and the misrepresentation of actual revenues during budget execution. To this end, we use six-year panel data from Italian municipalities with populations above 15,000. Our results suggest that overestimations of current revenues are more frequent than underestimations, during both budget formulation and budget execution. In terms of determinants, our results highlight the impact on revenue misrepresentation of both political orientation and fiscal stress. Finally, in terms of purposes, we show that revenue underestimation during budget formulation and revenue overestimation during budget execution may contribute to the formation of surpluses. The former, in particular, may allow mayors to create a 'war chest' in non-election years, which can then be used to increase net borrowing on the eve of elections.


We model human decision-making behaviors in a risk-taking task using inverse reinforcement learning (IRL) for the purposes of understanding real human decision making under risk. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work applying IRL to reveal the implicit reward function in human risk-taking decision making and to interpret risk-prone and risk-averse decision-making policies. We hypothesize that the state history (e.g. rewards and decisions in previous trials) are related to the human reward function, which leads to risk-averse and risk-prone decisions. We design features that reflect these factors in the reward function of IRL and learn the corresponding weight that is interpretable as the importance of features. The results confirm the sub-optimal risk-related decisions of human-driven by the personalized reward function. In particular, the risk-prone person tends to decide based on the current pump number, while the risk-averse person relies on burst information from the previous trial and the average end status. Our results demonstrate that IRL is an effective tool to model human decision-making behavior, as well as to help interpret the human psychological process in risk decision-making.


OBJECTIVE
By the end of February 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic infection had spread in Northern Italy, with thousands of patients infected. In Lombardy, the most affected area, the majority of public and private hospitals were dedicated to caring for COVID-19 patients and were organized following the 'Hub-and-Spoke' model for other medical specialties, like cardiac surgery and interventional procedures for congenital cardiac disease (CHD). Here, we report how the congenital cardiac care system was modified in Lombardy and the first results of this organization.

METHODS
We describe a modified 'Hub-and-Spoke' model - that involves 59 birthplaces and three specialized Congenital Cardiac Centers -- and how the hub center organized his activity. We also reported the data of the consecutive cases hospitalized during this period.

RESULTS
From 9 March to 15 April, we performed: a total of 21 cardiac surgeries, 4 diagnostic catheterizations, 3 CT scans, and 2 CMR. In three cases with prenatal diagnosis, the birth was scheduled. The spoke centers referred to our center six congenital cardiac cases. The postop ExtraCorporeal Membrane Oxygenation support was required in two cases; one case died. None of these patients nor their parents or accompanying person was found to be COVID-19-positive; 2 pediatric intensivists were found to be COVID-19-positive, and needed hospitalization without mechanical ventilation; 13 nurses had positive COVID swabs (4 with symptoms), and were managed and isolated at home.

CONCLUSION
Our preliminary data suggest that the model adopted met the immediate needs with a good outcome without increased mortality, nor COVID-19 exposure for the patients who underwent procedures.


Epidemiologic and health impact studies are inhibited by the paucity of global, long-term measurements of the chemical composition of fine particulate matter. We inferred PM2.5 chemical composition at 0.1° × 0.1° spatial resolution for 2004–2008 by combining aerosol optical depth retrieved from the MODIS and MISR satellite instruments, with coincident profile and composition information from the GEOS-Chem global chemical transport model. Evaluation of the satellite-model PM2.5 composition data set with North American in situ measurements indicated significant spatial agreement for secondary inorganic aerosol, particulate organic mass, black carbon, mineral dust, and sea salt. We found that global population-weighted PM2.5 concentrations were dominated by particulate organic mass (11.9 ± 7.3 μg/m3), secondary inorganic aerosol (11.1 ± 5.0 μg/m3), and mineral dust (11.1 ± 7.9 μg/m3). Secondary inorganic PM2.5 concentrations exceeded 30 μg/m3 over East China. Sensitivity simulations suggested that population-weighted ambient PM2.5 from biofuel burning (11 μg/m3) could be almost as large as from fossil fuel combustion sources (17 μg/m3). These estimates offer information about global population exposure to the chemical components and sources of PM2.5.


Three lahars were sampled in the Whan-gaehu River on the eastern flank of Ruapehu volcano, New Zealand, at 23.5 and 42 km from the source as they were flowing on September 27 and 29 and October 6, 1995. The lahars were generated by water explosively ejected from the highly mineralized Crater Lake. We used the chemical contrast between the lahars and resident stream water in their paths to describe a four-phase model of a noncohesive lahar wave in a river channel: (1) ambient stream water pushed ahead of the lahar in a process of miscible displacement due to hydrodynamic dispersion; (2) a zone of mixing between the stream water and the lahar that increases in length with distance from source; (3) a remnant of the original lahar, least diluted by stream water, that decreases in length and dilutes downstream; (4) the tail of the lahar surge. Peak discharge occurs at the end of phase 1 as water is pushed ahead of the lahar. Peak sediment concentration occurs at the end of phase 2, where debris entrainment by the flow is at its greatest (i.e., in front of the lahar proper). Deposits record only phases 2 and 3 of the lahar wave, phase 1 flow left only a tide line of organic debris, and phase 4 deposits were rapidly eroded by later streamflow. Downstream dilution by stream water eventually caused transformation of phases 2 and 3 of the lahars from debris flow to hyperconcentrated streamflow and then to normal streamflow as the flows became progressively finer grained and more turbulent.


With the success of deep neural networks, Neural Architecture Search (NAS) as a way of automatic model design has attracted wide attention. As training every child model from scratch is very time-consuming, recent works leverage weight-sharing to speed up the model evaluation procedure. These approaches greatly reduce computation by maintaining a single copy of weights on the super-net and share the weights among every child model. However, weight-sharing has no theoretical guarantee and its impact has not been well studied before. In this paper, we conduct comprehensive experiments to reveal the impact of weight-sharing: (1) The best-performing models from different runs or even from consecutive epochs within the same run have significant variance; (2) Even with high variance, we can extract valuable information from training the super-net with shared weights; (3) The interference between child models is a main factor that induces high variance; (4) Properly reducing the degree of weight sharing could effectively reduce variance and improve performance.


Abstract Victoria, Australia contains 25% of the world's known brown coal reserves. Much of the coal is located in thick seams overlain by a thin veneer of sands and clays. Three brown coal open-cut mines are presently operating in the Latrobe Valley. As a result of the mining activity, ground movements can be significant within and around the mines. Slope stability has to be managed during all mine development phases. Recent stability issues at some mines have highlighted a need to review the historical geotechnical information and data with a view to guiding future data collection. To support this purpose, the existing understanding of the geomechanical properties of the brown coal has been revisited, with emphasis on impacts of unloading. The coal has low density (specific gravity <1.2) and high water content (>60% by volume). Given this background, historical data for 49 consolidation tests on one of the major mined upper coal seams, the Morwell seam, were extracted from the historical records. Additionally, 44 consolidation tests for interseam materials were also extracted for the same area. These data have been analysed by re-evaluation of the consolidation data. The analysis shows that the behaviour of brown coal differs from that of typical engineering soils, in that at lower load the stress v. strain gradient is higher than for greater loads. At higher loads the stress v. strain gradient is almost constant. These observations indicate that reassessment of the unloading parameters for slope design in the open cuts is required.


The present study evaluated the water quality of Dighali Pukhuri, a freshwater pond ecosystem in Guwahati city, using Biological Water Quality Criteria (BWQC). The study determined water quality class of the sampling site taking into accounts of both Saprobic score and diversity score of aquatic insects using BWQC. Sampling was done in monsoon, post-monsoon, winter and pre-monsoon seasons during the year 2010-11 and 2011-12. Results of the study were compared with BWQC to assign different classes to the study site. The most prevalent biological water quality Class was "B" (slight pollution) which accounted for about 65.5% of the total classes present. It was followed by Class "C" (moderate pollution) which accounted for 25% of the total biological water quality classes. The Class "A" (clean) contributed only 12.5%. The prevalence percentage of different biological classes can be shown as Class "B" > Class "C" > Class "A".


In the UNIFI clinical study of ustekinumab (UST) in ulcerative colitis (UC), an endoscopic subscore (ES) was assigned by a local endoscopist, and the video was reviewed by central readers who provided an independent ES. Here, we determined ES agreement between local and central readers.

 UNIFI (NCT02407236) was a placebo-controlled double-blind trial consisting of randomized induction and maintenance studies.1
 Endoscopies were performed at screening (I-0), induction Wk 8 (I-8), and maintenance Wk 44 (M-44). Mayo ESs (range 0-3) were assigned by local endoscopists and a central reader reviewing the endoscopy video. The local reader was blinded to treatment, and the central reader was blinded to local ESs, treatment, and visit. If local and central readers assigned the same ES, that was the final ES (FES). If local and central reader ESs did not agree, videos were reviewed by an adjudicator who was blinded to the two previous ESs. If the adjudicator assigned the same ES as the local or central reader, that was the FES. If not, the FES was the median of the 3 ESs.

 Agreement between individual local and central reader ESs was fair (κ=0.25-0.33, Figure 1) and was less than the agreement between central reader and adjudicator (κ=0.55–0.56) at all timepoints. However, at I-0, when determining study entry eligibility (ES≥2), local and central reader agreed more than 85% of the time.
 At I-0, 98.2% of 1051 endoscopies with FES 2/3 were also scored 2/3 by local ES, while for the 104 with FES 0/1, 49% had a local ES 2/3. At I-8 and M-44 (primary endpoint timepoints), the local ES and FES agreed 87% (785/899) and 80% (497/625), respectively. The proportions of subjects with clinical remission and endoscopic improvement were slightly higher when using the local ES compared to the FES (Figure 2), whereas clinical response rates when using the local ES were similar to FES. Despite these findings, treatment differences between UST and placebo were generally similar when local ES and FES were used to calculate clinical remission at I-8 and M-88.
 Approximately 90% of endoscopies had an image quality considered "optimal" or "readable with certainty but with minor technical difficulties" by central readers. Overall, image adequacy did not impact agreement between readers.

 Even though agreement between local and central readers was fair and less than that between the central reader and adjudicator, the overall impact on primary and secondary study endpoints was minimal. Overall, the use of both local and central ES to determine the FES yielded a robust and reliable measure for study endpoint determination, however, efforts facilitating reproducible endoscopic assessments in UC are warranted.


Spontaneous and reflex spike trains in the efferent neurons to the claw opener and closer muscles of the crayfish were cross correlated. The opener inhibitor and the slow closer excitor were found to be closely synchronized under all conditions. Details of the correlation suggested an electrical synapse coordinating these neurons, possibly bidirectional, but possibly from CE to OI only. The OE-OI cross correlogram showed signs of direct central inhibition of OE to OI. Polysynaptic inhibition of OI by OE may also occur. CI and OI show signs of mutual inhibition. An unidentified closer bundle efferent was strongly and positively correlated with OE. The results are consistent with the respective muscular effects of the pairs of neurons involved; they disagree, however, with some previous findings (19).


Binge drinking has been identified as common place among student populations and due to its association with a number of negative consequences is generally considered to be problematic. This thesis adopts a mixed methods approach to the study of the binge drinking behaviour of undergraduate students at an English university, employing focus groups (N=6 groups), cross-sectional and prospective questionnaires (N= 117 and N= 300 respectively) to explore the antecedents of students' alcohol use and binge drinking. The findings of the qualitative work demonstrate that students consider binge drinking to be drinking to get drunk and identify student drinking behaviour as highly social. A number of key alcohol related expectancies that may be perpetuating high alcohol use in this population also emerge from the data. These are interpreted as indicating that the application of social cognitive models to the study of these behaviours is appropriate. The quantitative studies support the application of the TPB to the prediction of student binge drinking behaviour showing that it accounts for between 51 and 63.3% of the variance in students' intentions to binge drink and 34.7% of the variance in students' self-reported binge drinking behaviour. However a number of expansions the TPB are shown to be effective with expanded models accounting for 69.6% of the variance in intentions to binge drink and 51.5% of the variance in self-reported binge drinking behaviour. Implications for further research, including replications of the suggested expanded model are discussed and potential applications to future intervention and prevention works are presented.


Learning to become a psychotherapist is a complicated process. Research on this topic has been limited and there is little consensus on how to assess therapeutic skills. SP/SR (Self-Reflection/Self-Practice) has emerged as a theory and method for learning psychotherapy. In this article students' reflections on how to become a psychotherapist has been studied from a phenomenological perspective.

 The aim of the present exploratory study was to generate preliminary hypotheses for future investigations in order to elucidate the complicated processes that occur during the therapist training programs.

 Five prospective psychotherapists were recruited to the present investigation, who all studied at the penultimate semester at Evidens University College, Gothenburg, Sweden. Unstructured qualitative in-depth interviews were used followed by phenomenological analysis.

 Analysis yielded 252 meaning units and 12 categories which in turn led to four overarching themes: Learning as a visit to the dentist (when learning becomes painful because certain issues are not resolved); Learning as theatre (when the students just perform what is expected in order to pass); Learning as post-training soreness (when the learning process is challenging on a relevant level); Learning as reflections (when the students seek the intrinsic meaning).

 The study provided a basis for preliminary hypotheses for future investigations: reflections are helpful for managing the challenges described in the four themes. This, in turn, led to the formulation of some proposals for research questions for future investigations.


The photo decomposition of formaldehyde (HCHO) in an air stream in a bamboo charcoal loaded Ce-doped TiO2 coated photo-reactor was systematically investigated and demonstrated to be effective at relatively short retention times. The TiO2 loading and the photo-reactor's structure's influences on the efficiency of photochemical catalysis degradation of formaldehyde was reviewed. The TiO2 / bamboo charcoal adsorption of formaldehyde, as well as the influences of a certain amount of formaldehyde after adsorption on its photochemical catalysis effect were discussed. The sol-gel preparation method was used to prepare TiO2. Compare a series of experiment data, we get: after supported by TiO2, the surface of bamboo Charcoal still has strong catalysis degradation ability. After adsorbing formaldehyde, the photochemical catalysis degradation efficiency of formaldehyde of the catalyst at steady state is generally the same with pure catalyst. When the thickness of the catalyst layer of the multi-ladder-type structure photo-reactor is 2mm, the interval is 20mm, the best absorption efficiency of formaldehyde of TiO2 / bamboo charcoal is reached. TiO2 without doped Ce has no degradation of formaldehyde after 2 hours, but the degradation rate of formaldehyde of the Ce-doped TiO2 still is 15% 2 hours later, and the formaldehyde decontamination of the equipment reached 94%.


The preparation of sulfated zirconia (SZ-H) and silica supported sulfated zirconia (SZ/silica-H) catalysts using H2SO4 as sulfating agent has been reported. These catalysts are then evaluated and compared with other acid catalysts, viz. paratoluene sulfonic acid (PTSA), Amberlyst-15, H-ZSM5 and γ-alumina for the esterification of ethanol and n-butanol using acetic acid. Among the solid acid catalysts, SZ/silica-H shows superior esterification activity for both the alcohols. However, during the reusability of SZ/silica-H catalyst for 5 recycles, the observed gradual decrease in esterification activity (62.26 - 43.65%) is attributed to the partial leaching (35.9% after 5 cycles) of sulfated zirconia content from the silica support. To establish the leaching of sulfated zirconia, the fresh SZ/silica-H, SZ/silica-N and SZ/silica-Cl catalysts prepared by using different sulfating agents like H2SO4, (NH4)2SO4 and ClSO3H respectively have been given the water wash. The analysis of water washed catalysts shows the partial leaching (50-75% of the deposited quantity) of sulfated zirconia. The water washed catalysts containing the residual or trapped fraction of sulfated zirconia in the pores of silica show negligible esterification activity. These results indicate that the active sites on silica surface responsible for esterification activity are effectively leached out in aqueous medium.


A new application for reflector antennas is proposed and developed. Using the aperture theory, a phase center on the reflector aperture is determined and shown that, its location is dependent on the field distribution. The proposed concept is, initially, verified by using a symmetric reflector. It is shown that the phase center is located at the aperture geometric center, when the reflector is illuminated symmetrically about its principal planes. Then, a dual mode feed, employing TE11 and TM01 modes, is used for generating different reflector illuminations, and causing displacement of its phase center. The concept is then extended to offset reflectors, and the influence of the reflector geometry on the phase center displacement and other reflector electrical parameters is investigated. Based on the established feed radiation pattern requirements, a feed horn is designed using circular waveguide that can propagate both modes. By modifying the amplitude and phase of the modes in the horn, a controlled asymmetric reflector aperture field is achieved. A prototype feed horn is fabricated and tested for its dual mode radiation patterns. The results are in good agreement with simulations. The reflector phase center properties are then investigated, by using the designed feed. A reflector-feed assembly, with its dual phase center capability, was developed for improving the performance of the ground moving target indicator radars. The concept allows the conversion of a single reflector to two or more reflectors, simply by modifying the mode excitation amplitudes and phases, in the feed alone


In this paper we suggest some algorithms for the fluid-structure interaction problem stated using a domain decomposition framework. These methods involve stabilized pressure segregation methods for the solution of the fluid problem and fixed point iterative algorithms for the fluid-structure coupling. These coupling algorithms are applied to the aeroelastic simulation of suspension bridges. We assess flexural and torsional frequencies for a given inflow velocity. Increasing this velocity we reach the value for which the flutter phenomenon appears.


Mixing of diets is a notable dietary practice that is believed to improve performance-related characteristics such as growth, survival rate and egg-laying potential among insect herbivores. However, currently there is limited information regarding the performance of edible insects either on artificial and natural diets or their mixtures. This chapter reviewed recent literature on performance of a seasonally harvested and a widely consumed edible grasshopper, Ruspolia differens (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) reared on various artificial and natural diets. Our aim is to highlight diets and diet mixtures that results in the highest R. differens production. The results of the review show that R. differens performs better on mixed diets than on single or less diversified diets. In all reviewed studies, edible grasshoppers fed mixed diets either of natural plants or artificial diets achieved highest final weights, highest survival, highest fecundity and fastest development times than less diversified diets. The information is useful in designing technologies for large-scale rearing program for this species.


PREMISE
Although trauma may be considered a random act, geographical patterns of trauma potentially emerge. Our institution is unique in that it rests at an intersection of two of the highest areas of poverty and assault in New York City and has adequate data to analyze these patterns.

METHODS
We review the incident reports logged by emergency medical services (EMS) technicians arriving with intentionally injured trauma patients from January 1 to December 31, 2013 at a single institution. After acquisition of this data, it was placed into a computer file using an individual identifying numbers for each incident along with latitude and longitude coordinates determined by global positioning software for each event. The data were separated into blunt and penetrating categories. Penetrating trauma was further separated into the type of instrument used: edged weapon or firearm. Kernel density estimate using the Crimestat program was then performed to determine the epicenters with the highest incidents of nonaccidental trauma.

RESULTS
Two hundred eighty-three patients were evaluated for assault-related trauma. Two hundred fifty-four patients were included in the mapping of the data with almost equal blunt and penetrating trauma. Seventy-four percent of trauma occurred from 6 PM to 6 AM, and 41% occurring between midnight and 6 AM. Of patients, 32.7% were found to be assaulted at their home address. Regression analysis demonstrated that each type of trauma had unique epicenters of likelihood for occurrence.

CONCLUSIONS
We can only speculate the reasons for many of these results at this time and further research into the sociological, psychological, and environmental factors is required. A high proportion of patients are assaulted at their home addresses. Further study is necessary to improve patient care with additional data provided by emergency medical services, police departments and surrounding hospitals.


Several retrospective and a few prospective studies have shown that metastasis-directed therapy (MDT) could delay clinical progression and postpone the initiation of systemic treatment in oligorecurrent prostate cancer (PCa) patients. However, these endpoints are strongly influenced by variables such as concomitant use of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and follow-up imaging protocols. The aim of this manuscript was to assess palliative ADT- and metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC)-free survival as long-term oncological outcomes in oligorecurrent PCa treated by MDT. We retrospectively identified consecutive post-prostatectomy oligorecurrent PCa patients treated by MDT (salvage lymphadenectomy, radiotherapy, or metastasectomy) at our tertiary referral center. Patients were eligible for inclusion if they developed recurrence following radical prostatectomy, had ≤5 metastatic lesions on imaging and had a serum testosterone >50 ng/dL or a testosterone suppression therapy-free interval of >2 years prior to the first MDT as an assumption of recovered serum testosterone (if no testosterone measurement available). Patients with castration-resistant or synchronous oligometastatic PCa at the time of first MDT were excluded. Repeated MDTs were allowed, as well as a period of concomitant ADT. Kaplan–Meier analyses were performed to assess palliative ADT-free and mCRPC-free survival. We identified 191 eligible patients who underwent MDT. Median follow-up from first MDT until last follow-up or death was 45 months (IQR 27–70; mean 51 months). Estimated median palliative-ADT free survival was 66 months (95% CI 58–164) and estimated median mCRPC-free survival was not reached (mean 117 months, 95% CI 103–132). In total, 314 MDTs were performed and 25 patients (13%) received ≥3 MDTs. This study demonstrated that (repeated) MDT is feasible and holds promise in terms of palliative ADT-free and mCRPC-free survival for patients with oligorecurrent PCa. However, these findings should be confirmed in prospective randomized controlled trials.


JavaScript is dynamically typed and hence lacks the type safety of statically typed languages, leading to suboptimal IDE support, difficult to understand APIs, and unexpected runtime behavior. Several gradual type systems have been proposed, e.g., Flow and TypeScript, but they rely on developers to annotate code with types. This paper presents NL2Type, a learning-based approach for predicting likely type signatures of JavaScript functions. The key idea is to exploit natural language information in source code, such as comments, function names, and parameter names, a rich source of knowledge that is typically ignored by type inference algorithms. We formulate the problem of predicting types as a classification problem and train a recurrent, LSTM-based neural model that, after learning from an annotated code base, predicts function types for unannotated code. We evaluate the approach with a corpus of 162,673 JavaScript files from real-world projects. NL2Type predicts types with a precision of 84.1% and a recall of 78.9% when considering only the top-most suggestion, and with a precision of 95.5% and a recall of 89.6% when considering the top-5 suggestions. The approach outperforms both JSNice, a state-of-the-art approach that analyzes implementations of functions instead of natural language information, and DeepTyper, a recent type prediction approach that is also based on deep learning. Beyond predicting types, NL2Type serves as a consistency checker for existing type annotations. We show that it discovers 39 inconsistencies that deserve developer attention (from a manual analysis of 50 warnings), most of which are due to incorrect type annotations.


Knowledge representation systems, including ones based on Description Logics (DLs), use explanation facilities to, among others, debug knowledge bases. Until now, such facilities were not available for expressive DLs, whose reasoning is an un-natural refutation-based tableau. We offer a solution based on a sequent calculus that is closely related to the tableau implementation, exploiting its optimisations. The resulting proofs are pruned and then presented as simply as possible using templates.


Problem statement: A direct method, such as least squares technique is usually used to solve problems involving matching a curve or a surface to a set of data points. The solution obtained by this direct method is precise or very good in approximation, but computationally not very efficient. Thus, in this study, we propose an indirect approach using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) technique as an alternative. Approach: As a case study, we use conic curve which satisfy C0 continuity to be fitted to a given set of data points. PSO, a soft computing method is employed to optimize the control points and weights which are then used in conic equations. Results: Best fitted conic curve that represents all the given data points is then obtained. Conclusion: We use an indirect technique of soft computing methods, i.e., PSO to fit a curve to a given data set. We believe that other types of soft computing based heuristic procedures may also be used to solve related problems or to find its effectiveness.


Cigarette smoking is the single most important epidemiological risk factor for bladder cancer but it is not known whether exposure of urothelial cells to the systemic soluble contents of cigarette smoke is directly causative to bladder cancer and the associated epigenetic changes such as tumor suppressor gene hypermethylation. We undertook this study to investigate if long-term treatment of human urothelial cells with cigarette smoke extract (CSE) results in tumor suppressor gene hypermethylation, a phenotype that was previously associated with long-term constant CSE treatment of airway epithelial cells. We chronically treated an immortalized human urothelial cell line UROtsa with CSE using a cyclic daily regimen but the cells were cultured in CSE-free medium between daily treatments. Bisulfite sequencing and real-time PCR array-based methylation profiling were employed to evaluate methylation changes at tumor suppressor gene loci in the chronically CSE-treated cells versus the passage-matched untreated control cells. The RUNX3 tumor suppressor gene promoter was hypomethylated with a significant increase in proportion of the completely unmethylated haplotype after the long-term CSE treatment; whereas RUNX3 promoter hypermethylation was previously reported for bladder cancers of smokers. Hypomethylation induced by the long-term CSE treatment was also observed for the IGF2-H19 locus. The methylation status at the PRSS8/prostasin and 16 additional loci however, was unaffected by the chronic CSE treatment. Transient CSE treatment over 1 daily regimen resulted in transcriptional down-regulation of RUNX3 and H19, but only the H19 transcription was down-regulated in the chronically CSE-treated urothelial cells. Transcription of a key enzyme in one-carbon metabolism, dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) was greatly reduced by the long-term CSE treatment, potentially serving as a mechanism for the hypomethylation phenotype via a reduced supply of methyl donor. In conclusion, chronic cyclic CSE treatment of urothelial cells induced hypomethylation rather than hypermethylation at specific loci.


Recently the World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with the European Association for Haematopathology and the Society for Hematopathology, published a revised and updated edition of the WHO Classification of Tumors of the Hematopoietic and Lymphoid Tissues. The 4th edition of the WHO classification incorporates new information that has emerged from scientific and clinical studies in the interval since the publication of the 3rd edition in 2001, and includes new criteria for the recognition of some previously described neoplasms as well as clarification and refinement of the defining criteria for others. It also adds entities-some defined principally by genetic features-that have only recently been characterized. In this paper, the classification of myeloid neoplasms and acute leukemia is highlighted with the aim of familiarizing hematologists, clinical scientists, and hematopathologists not only with the major changes in the classification but also with the rationale for those changes.


This site is an encyclopedia [2] for topics related to the sciences of embryology [3], development, and reproductive medicine, their legal, ethical and social contexts, and histories of those sciences and contexts. We have pictures, descriptive articles, interpretive essays, and other objects and further information. The site is Open Access (OA), so you can use it for free following the copyright and Creative Commons licensing agreements. It grows, so you can find new contents regularly. The contents receive rigorous peer, professional, and editorial review, so the content is trustworthy. In addition, this site has several tools to help you navigate its contents, from the topmost toolbar that groups things according to their topics and types, to semantic web visualizations and exhibits. The Embryo Project Encyclopedia has been online since 2007.


PREMISE
The distribution of genetic diversity on the landscape has critical ecological and evolutionary implications. This may be especially the case on a local scale for foundation plant species since they create and define ecological communities, contributing disproportionately to ecosystem function.

METHODS
We examined the distribution of genetic diversity and clones, which we defined first as unique multilocus genotypes (MLG), and then by grouping similar MLGs into multilocus lineages (MLL). We used 186 markers from inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR) across 358 ramets from 13 patches of the foundation grass Leymus chinensis. We examined the relationship between genetic and clonal diversities, their variation with patch-size, and the effect of the number of markers used to evaluate genetic diversity and structure in this species.

RESULTS
Every ramet had a unique MLG. Almost all patches consisted of individuals belonging to a single MLL. We confirmed this with a clustering algorithm to group related genotypes. The predominance of a single lineage within each patch could be the result of the accumulation of somatic mutations, limited dispersal, some sexual reproduction with partners mainly restricted to the same patch, or a combination of all three.

CONCLUSIONS
We found strong genetic structure among patches of L. chinensis. Consistent with previous work on the species, the clustering of similar genotypes within patches suggests that clonal reproduction combined with somatic mutation, limited dispersal, and some degree of sexual reproduction among neighbors causes individuals within a patch to be more closely related than among patches. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


The increasing pressure on healthcare resources in Sweden requires that the system becomes more efficient and not only focus on additional resources as the solution since the healthcare also has legal responsibility for delivering care as cost-effective as possible. An identified factor that creates lower productivity in Sweden than in other Nordic countries is a slow patient flow. To create an efficient and leveled flow it is important that wards that affect each other have synchronized flows and also overview the whole patient flow instead of focusing only on a single ward when making improvements to prevent sub optimizations.
The purpose with this master thesis is to give practical suggestions for a more efficient work with patient flow. This purpose is addressed by investing how a specific ward works with patient flow, both the acute and the elective, at a medium sized hospital. Furthermore, the study examines the coordination of the acute flow on an overall level and how it is affected of the work in the specific ward. Usage of Lean philosophy and process development have been shown to have great results in complex organizational environments. One such environment is the healthcare system, with several ingoing components, as well as different wards dependent on each other's functionality and therefore where it is important to improve the processes across the interfaces.
Based on the analysis and the discussion three major improvement areas where found; i) Planning operations and separation of patient flows; ii) standardization and visualization of communication and processes; iii) Continuously work with improvements to evaluate and improve the processes. Several practical suggestions to create an efficient flow at the studied hospital are also presented in the conclusion.


This workshop presents mathematical concepts vertex deflection and Gauss-Bonnet Theorem with hands on experiences using paper, plastic, stapler and glue. We show how to create sculptor Ilhan Koman's mathematically motivated developable surfaces [1, 3, 4]. We also present how one can construct a variety of shapes creating saddle, maxima and minima using nip and tuck.


Suzy, the silly goose with a mind of her own, returns in a brand new read-aloud Christmas picture book. When Suzy Goose decides that the Christmas tree is missing a star, she sets off on a journey to fetch the shiny star in the sky. No matter how far she travels, she never reaches it. But when she finds herself back at the tree, everyone has a beautiful Christmas surprise!


We propose a blind upmixing method for stereo music signals that utilizes multi-step linear prediction and decomposes the input signals into reverberation and the dereverberated signals. The proposed method is directly motivated by our previously proposed dereverberation algorithm that was shown to dereverberate speech signals well. In this paper, we first analyze the behavior of the multi-step linear prediction and investigate the reverberation reduction/extraction strategy using a stereo music signal model. Based on the analysis, we show that the proposed method can perform a dereverberation and reverberation extraction based on the stereo music signal, and achieve an efficient blind upmix of stereo music by assigning its dereverberated signal to the front channels and extracted reverberation to the rear channels. In the experiment, we apply the proposed upmixing method to real stereo music signals, and confirm its effectiveness with an objective evaluation and a preference test.


We present a new experimental technique to measure the delamination strength under transverse tensile stress of YBa2Cu3O7−δ coated conductors for electric power applications. The delamination strength, defined as the tensile stress at which the ceramic layers delaminate from one another, is measured at 76 K for different sample configurations. The delamination strength is reduced by as much as 40% when the conductor is slit to smaller width, a standard fabrication process, and this reduction is due to damage to the ceramic layers near the edges of the conductor. We found that the delamination strength of slit coated conductors can be raised significantly by reinforcing the conductor by laminating it with copper strips and adding solder fillets at the edges. In relatively strong conductors, where the delamination strength is as high as 15 MPa, the critical current does not degrade before actual delamination. This fact greatly simplifies sample characterization of practical high-strength conductors, since only mechanical measurements need to be made. The critical current does, however, degrade significantly as a function of transverse stress before delamination in weak conductors that have relatively low delamination strength below 15 MPa. We discuss how a soft metallic layer in YBCO coated conductors may limit the transverse stress that the superconducting layer experiences in applications.


This paper presents the results of elevated temperatures on the compressive of high fly ash content concrete (HFCC). The specimens were prepared with three different replacements of cement by fly ash 30%, 40% and 50% by mass and the residual compressive strength was tested after exposure to elevated temperature 250, 450, 550 and 650°C and room temperature respectively. The results showed that the compressive strength apparently decreased with the elevated temperature increased. The presence of fly ash was effective for improvement of the relative strength, which was the ratio of residual compressive strength after exposure to elevated temperature and ordinary concrete. The relative compressive strength of fly ash concrete was higher than those of ordinary concrete. Based on the experiments results, the alternating simulation formula to determine the relationship among relative strength, elevated temperature and fly ash replacement is developed by using regression of results, which provides the theoretical basis for the evaluation and repair of HFCC after elevated temperature.


We utilize the more than 100 gravitationally bound dense cores formed in our three-dimensional, turbulent MHD simulations reported in Chen & Ostriker to analyze structural, kinematic, and magnetic properties of prestellar cores. Our statistical results disagree with the classical theory of star formation in which cores evolve to be oblate with magnetic fields parallel to the minor axes. Instead, we find that cores are generally triaxial, although the core-scale magnetic field is still preferentially most parallel to the core's minor axis and most perpendicular to the major axis. The internal and external magnetic field directions are correlated, but the direction of integrated core angular momentum is misaligned with the core's magnetic field, which is consistent with recent observations. The ratio of rotational/total kinetic and rotational/gravitational energies are independent of core size and consistent in magnitude with observations. The specific angular momentum also follows the observed relationship L/M ∝ R3/2, indicating that rotation is acquired from ambient turbulence. With typical , rotation is not the dominant motion when cores collapse.


The interelement stress in the Finite Element Method is not continuous in nature, and stress projections from quadrature points to mesh nodes often causes oscillations. The widely used particle-in-cell method cannot avoid this issue and produces worse results when there are mixing materials of large strength (e.g., viscosity in Stokes problems) contrast in one element. The post-processing methods including (1) distance weighted average from surrounding particles to the centroid mesh node (Post-local), (2) global projection with least square fit (Post-global), and (3) superconvergent point recovery method (SPR), cannot effectively eliminate the stress fluctuations. We propose three pre-processing methods to reduce the interface contrast in mixing elements: (1) global method with harmonic-mean averaging (GHM), (2) unification of properties at mixed-material elements (UnE), and (3) averaging particle properties within a specified distance to gauss quadrature points (AGP). For tests of Q1 elements, the results processed by combining either pre-processing method with the Post-local projection can increase the precision. The GHM pre-processing method is the least computationally expensive application and the easiest to implement, the AGP pre-processing method is the most expensive and the UnE in-between. However, for Q2 elements, the GHM pre-processing method fails in stress recovery, and produces worse results than those without any pre-processing procedures. For general cases (both Q1 and Q2 elements), the AGP pre-processing method is recommended. The optimal sampling radius used in the AGP method is close to that size of one element, beyond which it increases computational time, but does not significantly increases the accuracy of recovered stresses. In terms of the averaging approaches used in the AGP method, the harmonic mean is suitable for simple-shear-dominated processes and the arithmetic mean is better for the pure-shear-dominated models. For complex models, the AGP method of harmonic mean combined with the SPR post-procedure is recommended. The AGP method is found to be able to efficiently reduce stress perturbations in a synthetic model of complex fault geometries like the San Andreas Fault system.


Concern over the nation's health manpower needs has had significant effects upon medical education. Medical schools have reacted by the establishment of accelerated curricula. Most medical specialty boards have accepted the internship as a year of residency training, thus reducing the length of training required for certification. Approximately one third of the nation's medical schools now offer a three-year program or offer their students the option of graduating from medical school within three years of admission. 1 Swanson 2 observed that The three-year medical school concept has become a popular idea.... The popularity of the three-year medical school concept among the public and their legislative representatives stems in part from the belief that the length of medical education places a hardship on students and from the desire to increase physician output by the one-time benefit of graduating two classes simultaneously. Many have questioned whether these are appropriate reasons for a


India is agrarian society where sole dependence has been on agriculture since time immemorial trading of agricultural produce began in exchange of money. Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for about 58 percent of India's population. Gross Value Added (GVA) by agriculture forestry and fishing was estimated at Rs.19.48lakh Crore (Us$276.37 Billion) in 7y 20(PE). Growth in GVA in agriculture and allied sectors stood at 4 percent in 7Y 20. In 2020-21 Government of India is targeting total food grain production of 298 MT. Indian turmeric is the best in the world due to the presence of Cur cumin content. This study was conducted to assess the cost and profitability of cultivation of turmeric in the Coimbatore district. The data required for this study were collected from primary as well as secondary sources. Tools such as index number, mean, range, standard deviation and coefficient of variance are used for the present study. Both the Total Variable Cost and Total Fixed Cost were high for large farmers in the Coimbatore district, i.e., 40.17 percent and 13.44 percent respectively. It is concluded that turmeric cultivation is profitable with a Total Cost of production for an acre of Rs. 108794 and gross income from turmeric cultivation were Rs. 214821. The Net Income was Rs. 106027 per acre. The Cost-Benefit Ratio was greater than one. It indicates that the production of turmeric was highly remunerative and profitable for the growers.


Extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation is considered an important pathological feature of diabetic kidney disease (DKD). Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors protect against kidney injury. However, the potential mechanisms of HDACs in DKD are still largely unknown. Here, we describe a novel feedback loop composed of HDAC2 and miR-205 that regulates ECM production in tubular epithelial cells in individuals with DKD. We found that HDAC2 mRNA expression in peripheral blood was markedly higher in patients with DKD than in patients with diabetes. Nuclear HDAC2 protein expression was increased in TGFβ1-stimulated tubular epithelial cells and db/db mice. We also found that miR-205 was regulated by HDAC2 and downregulated in TGFβ1-treated HK2 cells and db/db mice. In addition, HDAC2 reduced histone H3K9 acetylation in the miR-205 promoter region to inhibit its promoter activity and subsequently suppressed miR-205 expression through an SP1-mediated pathway. Furthermore, miR-205 directly targeted HDAC2 and inhibited HDAC2 expression. Intriguingly, miR-205 also regulated its own transcription by inhibiting HDAC2 and increasing histone H3K9 acetylation in its promoter, forming a feedback regulatory loop. Additionally, the miR-205 agonist attenuated ECM production in HK2 cells and renal interstitial fibrosis in db/db mice. In conclusion, the HDAC2/SP1/miR-205 feedback loop may be crucial for the pathogenesis of DKD.


Article history: Received 22 April 2012 Received in revised format 7 July 2012 Accepted July 19 2012 Available online 15 August 2012 In recent years, the availability of power plants has become increasingly important issue in most developed and developing countries. This paper aims to propose a methodology based on Markov approach to evaluate the availability simulation model for power generation system (Turbine) in a thermal power plant under realistic working environment. The effects of occurrence of failure/course of actions and availability of repair facilities on system performance have been investigated. Higher availability of the components/equipments is inherently associated with their higher reliability and maintainability. The power generation system consists of five subsystems with four possible states: full working, reduced capacity, reduced efficiency and failed state. So, its availability should be carefully evaluated in order to foresee the performance of the power plant. The availability simulation model (Av.) has been developed with the help of mathematical formulation based on Markov Birth-Death process using probabilistic approach. For this purpose, first differential equations have been generated. These equations are then solved using normalizing condition so as to determine the steady state availability of power generation system. In fact, availability analysis is very much effective in finding critical subsystems and deciding their preventive maintenance program for improving availability of the power plant as well as the power supply. From the graphs illustrated, the optimum values of failure/repair rates for maximum availability, of each subsystem is analyzed and then maintenance priorities are decided for all subsystems.The present paper highlights that in this system, Turbine governing subsystem is most sensitive demands more improvement in maintainability as compared to the other subsystems. While Turbine lubrication subsystem is least sensitive. © 2012 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved


Murine BCL1 tumor cells bear large amounts of surface IgM and trace amounts of surface IgD. In the present studies we have shown that cultivation of these cells, in the absence of lipopolysaccharide, results in the acquisition of IgD by virtually all the cells. These results suggest that BCL1 cells can differentiate in vitro into more mature B cells and offer an attractive model for analyzing the factors controlling appearance of IgD on a monoclonal cell line.


ABSTRACT The phototrophic nonsulfur purple bacteriumRhodobacter capsulatus can use urea as a sole source of nitrogen. Three transposon Tn5-induced mutations (Xan-9, Xan-10, and Xan-19), which led to a Ure−phenotype, were mapped to the ureF and ureCgenes, whereas two other Tn5 insertions (Xan-20 and Xan-22) were located within the ntrC and ntrB genes, respectively. As in Klebsiella aerogenes and other bacteria, the genes encoding urease (ureABC) and the genes required for assembly of the nickel metallocenter (ureD andureEFG) are clustered in R. capsulatus(ureDABC-orf136-ureEFG). No homologues of Orf136 were found in the databases, and mutational analysis demonstrated that orf136 is not essential for urease activity or growth on urea. Analysis of aureDA-lacZ fusion showed that maximum expression of the ure genes occurred under nitrogen-limiting conditions (e.g., serine or urea as the sole nitrogen source), but ure gene expression was not substrate (urea) inducible. Expression of the ure genes was strictly dependent on NtrC, whereas ς54 was not essential for urease activity. Expression of the ure genes was lower (by a factor of 3.5) in the presence of ammonium than under nitrogen-limiting conditions, but significant transcription was also observed in the presence of ammonium, approximately 10-fold higher than in an ntrC mutant background. Thus, ure gene expression in the presence of ammonium also requires NtrC. Footprint analyses demonstrated binding of NtrC to tandem binding sites upstream of the ureD promoter. Phosphorylation of NtrC increased DNA binding by at least eightfold. Although urea is effectively used as a nitrogen source in an NtrC-dependent manner, nitrogenase activity was not repressed by urea.


Thirty-one patients who presented with the symptoms of palpitations and/or syncope were personally studied by the Holter monitor electrocardiogram method. The method is briefly described. Interesting results were obtained, which are illustrated by five case histories. Of these 31 cases which were studied, five gave entirely negative results. In five cases, there were benign and not very frequent atrial or ventricular ectopic beats. In 21 cases there were significant findings, the most common being frequent and/or dangerous R on T or multifocal ventricular ectopic beats. Additionally, paroxysmal tachyarrhythmias, atrioventricular block, sinoatrial arrest or significant ischaemic changes, which were not detected in the routine electrocardiograms, were recorded.


Generalized brain atrophy, especially affecting frontal lobes, hippocampus and cerebellum, is frequently observed in alcoholics. This alteration leads to cognitive dysfunction (that may affect 50-80% of alcoholics, even young people) and altered gait and movement disorders. Although several factors may contribute, oxidative damage, mainly due to increased production of reactive oxygen species plays an outstanding role in its pathogenesis, and will be reviewed in this manuscript. Among them, we can consider mechanisms directly dependent on ethanol metabolism; mechanisms related to increased cytokine secretion, partly dependent on ethanol-induced increased intestinal permeability, endotoxemia and micro RNA induction; mechanisms related to ethanol-mediated iron overload; mechanisms related to ethanol-derived toxic lipid synthesis; and mechanisms related to altered trace element and vitamin concentrations that can affect antioxidant systems. Despite the role of pro-oxidants, and in contrast with experimental data, no clear-cut benefit has been observed in clinical trials with antioxidants. Alcohol abstinence, together with adequate nutrition, still constitute the most effective therapeutic approach in these patients.


This paper introduces Green Streams, a novel solution to address a critical but often overlooked property of data-intensive software: energy efficiency. Green Streams is built around two key insights into data-intensive software. First, energy consumption of data-intensive software is strongly correlated to data volume and data processing, both of which are naturally abstracted in the stream programming paradigm; Second, energy efficiency can be improved if the data processing components of a stream program coordinate in a "balanced" way, much like an assembly line that runs most efficiently when participating workers coordinate their pace. Green Streams adopts a standard stream programming model, and applies Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) to coordinate the pace of data processing among components, ultimately achieving energy efficiency without degrading performance in a parallel processing environment. At the core of Green Streams is a novel constraint-based inference to abstract the intrinsic relationships of data flow rates inside a stream program, that uses linear programming to minimize the frequencies - hence the energy consumption - for processing components while still maintaining the maximum output data flow rate. The core algorithm of Green Streams is formalized, and its optimality is established. The effectiveness of Green Streams is evaluated on top of the StreamIt framework, and preliminary results show the approach can save CPU energy by an average of 28% with a 7% performance improvement.


An important goal of toxicology is to understand and predict the adverse effects of drugs and other xenobiotics. For pharmaceuticals, such effects often emerge unexpectedly in man even when absent from trials in vitro and in animals. Although drugs and xenobiotics act on molecules, it is their perturbation of intracellular networks that matters. The tremendous complexity of these networks makes it difficult to understand the effects of xenobiotics on their ability to function. Because systems biology integrates data concerning molecules and their interactions into an understanding of network behaviour, it should be able to assist toxicology in this respect. This review identifies how in silico systems biology tools, such as kinetic modelling, and metabolic control, robustness and flux analyse, may indeed help understanding network-mediated toxicity. It also shows how these approaches function by implementing them vis-à-vis the glutathione network, which is important for the detoxification of reactive drug metabolites. The tools enable the appreciation of the steady state concept for the detoxification network and make it possible to simulate and then understand effects of perturbations of the macromolecules in the pathway that are counterintuitive. We review how a glutathione model has been used to explain the impact of perturbation of the pathway at various molecular sites, as would be the effect of single-nucleotide polymorphisms. We focus on how the mutations impact the levels of glutathione and of two candidate biomarkers of hepatic glutathione status. We conclude this review by sketching how the various systems biology tools may help in the various phases of drug development in the pharmaceutical industry.


Paleoclimatic reconstructions of variations in rainfall and upwelling in the tropical Cariaco Basin, off Venezuela coast, suggest that meridional displacement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is linked to high latitude sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies at different timescales. This study investigates instrumental records in search for covariability between the Cariaco Basin area and the Norwegian Sea. The interannual correlation between the Norwegian Sea SST anomalies and SST elsewhere are similar to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) imprint on the SST in the North Atlantic. This indicates that at these timescales the NAO's atmospheric forcing dominates the air-sea interactions over the North Atlantic. However, they can not fully explain the weak interannual correlations between the SST and sea level pressure (SLP) indices of the Norwegian and Caribbean Seas. At interdecadal timescales the whole Atlantic seems to be dominated by a basin wide spatial pattern of positive correlations, which roughly resembles the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) spatial pattern. This is believed to describe variations of the thermohaline circulation (THC). The resulting pattern of the Norwegian Sea SST correlated with the SLP elsewhere, both at interannual and interdecadal timescales, is similar to the anomalous SST conditions in the North Atlantic associated with a dipole-like atmospheric circulation, that modifies the air-sea interactions and the THC intensity. Despite some discrepancies with other studies, our results indicate that the interdecadal covariability between the Norwegian and the Caribbean Seas is due to the existence of the THC, and that its strength is modulated by the wind-evaporation mechanism, local processes or remote forcing through an atmospheric teleconnection.


The development of low overpotential, non-precious metal oxide electrocatalysts is important for sustainable water oxidation using renewable energy. Here we report the fabrication of nano-interfaces between MnOx nanoscale islands and NiFe layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanosheets, which were chosen as baseline electrocatalysts for OER activity tuning. The MnOx nano-islands were grown on the surfaces of NiFe-LDH nanosheets by atomic layer deposition (ALD). Morphological and structural characterization indicated that the MnOx formed flat nanoscale islands which uniformly covered the surfaces of NiFe-LDH nanosheets, giving rise to a large density of three-dimensional nano-interfaces at the NiFe-LDH/MnOx/electrolyte multi-phase boundaries. We showed by X-ray spectroscopic characterization that these nano-interfaces induced electronic interactions between NiFe-LDH nanosheets and MnOx nano-islands. Through such modifications, the Fermi level of the original NiFe-LDH was lowered by donating electrons to the MnOx nano-islands, dramatically boosting the OER performance of these electron-deficient NiFe-LDH catalysts. Using only 10 cycles of ALD MnOx, the MnOx/NiFe-LDH nanocomposites exhibited remarkable and enhanced electrocatalytic activity with an overpotential of 174 mV at 10 mA cm−2. This work demonstrates a promising pathway for tuning transition metal electrocatalysts via a generic ALD surface modification technique.


: The presence of cysteinesulfinic acid and 2-aminoethanesulfinic acid has never been described in human adenomatous prostate. Results here reported are compared with those in the normal prostate of guinea pigs and rats.


Most of the existing historic buildings are masonry buildings in China. Among them, some of buildings have served for a long time, their mechanical performance deteriorated significantly. They need to be inspected thoroughly and assessed accurately for the purpose of protection. However, there is still no available engineering software designed for the reliability assessment of existing historic masonry structures. Therefore, a Masonry Assessment software Package with three modules of pre-processing, core analyzing, and post-processing was developed based on the characteristics of historic masonry building structures. In this paper, the development technology for the software is introduced, and the suitability of the software is verified through the application of the software in a real historic masonry building.


Mining user preferences plays a critical role in many important applications such as customer relationship management, product and personalized service recommendation. Although of great potential, to the best of our knowledge, the problem of mining user preferences from positive and negative examples has not been explored before. In this paper, we identify and model the problem systematically. Our theoretical problem analysis indicates that mining preferences from positive and negative examples is challenging. We develop a greedy algorithm called POUPM and show the effectiveness and the efficiency of the algorithm using synthetic data sets.


The influence of two aminoadamantane derivatives representing low-affinity NMDA receptor antagonists, which show antiparkinsonian-like activity both in animal models and in patients with Parkinson's disease, have been studied in vivo on mice with acute ethanol-induced disorders. N-(adamant-2-yl) hexamethyleneimine hydrochloride (himantane) in doses of 5--20 mg/kg, i.p., dose-dependently prevented ethanol-induced ataxia in CD-I mice, sedation in C57BI/6 mice, and hyperlocomotion in DBA/2 mice. At the same time, I -aminoadamantane (amantadine) in doses of 10 - 20 mg/kg, i.p., did not attenuate acute ethanol-induced (2 g/kg, i.p.) effects. Neither himantane nor amantadine influenced the duration of ethanol narcosis (5.5 g/kg, i.p.) in CD-I mice. The obtained data showed a difference of the pharmacodynamic profile of himantane as low-affinity NMDA receptor antagonist in interaction with ethanol at doses inducing behavioral disorders.


Introducing the associated Bessel polynomials in terms of two non-negative integers, we factorize their corresponding differential equation into a product of first-order differential operators by four different ways as shape invariance equations. Then, the radial part of the bound states of the Schrodinger equation of a hydrogen-like atom is derived using one of the factorization methods in the framework of supersymmetric quantum mechanics. In this approach, we regenerate the radial bound states and their corresponding spectrum, which are consistent with the well-known facts. Based on the generalization of the supersymmetry idea, we shall show that two hydrogen-like atoms with the same energy of the electron possess three extra supersymmetric structures in addition to an ordinary one. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2005


Author(s): O'Hare, Jeanette R.; Ruell, Emily W.; Eisemann, John D. | Abstract: The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), enacted in 1947 and amended in 1972, 1978, and 1988, established federal regulation of pesticides in order to protect human and environmental health. FIFRA has been under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since the EPA's inception in 1970. Although FIFRA requires EPA to consider the benefits of a pesticide's use, EPA must ensure that the pesticide is used without posing unreasonable adverse effects to human health or the environment. Furthermore, the Endangered Species Act (ESA), enacted in 1973, requires federal agencies to protect species vulnerable to extinction without consideration of costs. The amendments to FIFRA in 1972, 1978, 1988, and 1996 mandated the EPA review and reevaluate the eligibility of older pesticide products for reregistration under the updated FIFRA standard, while also complying with the new environmental laws of the 1970s. Today EPA's goal is to review existing pesticide product registrations at least every 15 years under "Registration Review." To meet their responsibilities under the ESA, EPA is initiating consultations with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) during the Registration Review process. The first pesticide active ingredients to advance to consultations under Registration Review are those in gas cartridge products. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) holds two gas cartridge product registrations. As a federal agency, APHIS also must comply with the ESA and consults with the USFWS on wildlife damage management activities, including tools such as pesticide products. This discussion presents APHIS' unique ground view as a federal agency navigating the EPA's ESA consultations during the Registration Review process, and describes the mitigation measures and their impacts on APHIS Wildlife Services' activities.


CONTEXT
Traditional surgical principles state that pancreatic resection should not be contemplated when malignancies arise in the pancreas and involve other organs. While this is logic for ductal adenocarcinoma and other tumours with aggressive biological behavior; for even large neuroendocrine tumours, aggressive multivisceral resection may achieve useful palliation and excellent survival.

DESIGN
Case records were retrospectively analyzed.

PATIENTS AND INTERVENTIONS
Twelve consecutive patients (7 males, 5 females; median age 57 years, range: 37-79 years) underwent multi-visceral en bloc resections for neuroendocrine tumour arising in the pancreas between 1994 and 2008.

RESULTS
Three patients underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy; 9 patients had left sided pancreatic resections for neuroendocrine tumour of median diameter 9.5 cm (5-25 cm). They had a median of 3 (range: 1-4) additional organs resected. There were no post-operative deaths or late mortality with median follow up of 24 months. Five patients experienced a complication (major in 3 patients). Median disease free survival was not attained and 3 patients experienced recurrent disease mostly in the liver and may be candidates for further resection.

CONCLUSION
Aggressive multi-visceral resection for locally advanced neuroendocrine tumour involving the pancreas is technically feasible and in selected patients can be achieved with low mortality and acceptable morbidity, offering good disease free and overall survival. However this complex surgery should be only performed in specialist centers.


In this paper, we consider the sparse inverse covariance selection problem which is equivalent to structure recovery of a Markov Network over Gaussian variables. We introduce a simple but efficient greedy algorithm, called SINCO, for solving the Sparse INverse COvariance problem. Our approach is based on coordinate ascent method which naturally preserves the sparsity of the inverse covariance matrix. We compare our algorithm to the state-of-art method called glasso [5], evaluating both computational efficiency and structure-reconstruction accuracy of both methods. We show that the two methods are often comparable in speed and accuracy, however, in some regimes, our method can significantly outperform glasso in terms of both computational time and structure reconstruction error (particularly, false positive error). Our method has an additional advantage of being easily parallelizable. We also show that the greedy nature of the method is such that one can reproduce the regularization path behavior by applying the method to one instance of the regularization parameter only. Numerical experiments demonstrate advantages of our approach on simulated networks, both random and "structured" (scale-free) ones, where the ground-truth structure is available. We also report promising empirical results on real-life problems with unknown ground-truth structure, such as classification of mental states from fMRI data.


In Terror Capitalism anthropologist Darren Byler theorizes the contemporary Chinese colonization of the Uyghur Muslim minority group in the northwest autonomous region of Xinjiang. He shows that the mass detention of over one million Uyghurs in "reeducation camps" is part of processes of resource extraction in Uyghur lands that have led to what he calls terror capitalism—a configuration of ethnoracialization, surveillance, and mass detention that in this case promotes settler colonialism. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the regional capital Ürümchi, Byler shows how media infrastructures, the state's enforcement of "Chinese" cultural values, and the influx of Han Chinese settlers contribute to Uyghur dispossession and their expulsion from the city. He particularly attends to the experiences of young Uyghur men—who are the primary target of state violence—and how they develop masculinities and homosocial friendships to protect themselves against gendered, ethnoracial, and economic violence. By tracing the political and economic stakes of Uyghur colonization, Byler demonstrates that state-directed capitalist dispossession is coconstructed with a colonial relation of domination.


Abstract It is a common experience to dream of a world where everyone would live happy and in harmony with both the environment and the other people, without sufferings and injustice, under a perfect socio-political system, without wars or hunger. This dream has inspired different people form different eras and cultures to build imaginary worlds for compensating the dissatisfaction with the current one. Utopia is the name of the imaginary world they proposed either as alternative one or as temporary oasis able to release people from the reality. Literally meaning 'no-place', the term has an ancient Greek root but it does not exist in the vocabulary of ancient Greek language. Although ancient Greeks did not have a conscious concept of utopia, they, however, dreamt, wrote, proposed – with different aims - what we would call now ( paradoxically using a 'modern' term ) 'utopic' worlds. From the archaic to the post-classic period, we find literary expressions of utopic thought in ancient Greek culture. Such expressions constitute the basis of the modern Utopia and Utopianism with their positive and negative implications. This essay takes a more detailed look at the work of Aristophanes, considered one of the greatest Greek playwrights, and inquires whether his comedies can be considered utopias.


Purpose/Objectives: To provide an overview of the efficacy of using iPad tablets and online education videos to provide cancer related patient education to increase patient knowledge and satisfaction. Data Sources: A literature search for peer-reviewed articles from 2009-2019. Databases searched include Cochrane, CINAHL, and PubMed. English language terms utilized: waiting, patient experience, patient satisfaction, cancer, positive distraction, oncology, music, patient education, iPad, television, and online education. 10 articles will be utilized for this review. Conclusions: Patient education videos by way of iPads are more effective in increasing patient knowledge and patient satisfaction when compared to the standard pamphlet or written patient education methods. Patients who viewed online education videos as an educational tool scored significantly higher on the post-study questionnaires than patients who were given standard education pamphlets. Implications for Nursing Practice: Nurse Practitioners working in the ambulatory setting face challenges in adequately educating patients in brief office encounters. Online patient education videos can give patients the option to continue learning about his/her disease and treatment plan from home with no time constraint. Using iPads during a clinic appointment for patient education establishes individual-level learning priorities to develop and carry out education plans. Nurse Practitioners and other providers are uniquely positioned to support the use of technology to provide educational materials during wait times and to evaluate the patient's level of comprehension following each educational intervention. iPad Tablets and Online Videos in Patient Education 3


Mean ages and metal abundances are estimated for the stellar populations in a sample of 115 E and S0 galaxies in the central 64 × 70 of the Coma cluster. The estimates are based on the absorption line indices Mg2, <Fe> and HβG, and the mass-to-light ratios (M/L). Single stellar population models from Vazdekis et al. were used to transform from the measured line indices and M/L ratios to mean ages and mean metal abundances ([Mg/H] and [Fe/H]). The non-solar abundance ratios [Mg/Fe] were taken into account by assuming that for a given age and iron abundance, a [Mg/Fe] different from solar will affect the Mg2 index but not the M/L ratio or the <Fe> and HβG indices. The derived ages and abundances are the luminosity weighted mean values for the stellar populations in the galaxies. By comparing the mean ages derived from the Mg2-HβG diagram to those derived from the Mg2-M/L diagram, we estimate the variations of the fraction of dark matter. Alternatively, the difference between the two estimates of the mean age may be due to variations in the initial mass function or to any non-homology of the galaxies. The distributions of the derived mean ages and abundances show that there are real variations in both the mean ages and in the abundances. We find an intrinsic rms scatter of [Mg/H], [Fe/H] and [Mg/Fe] of 0.2 dex, and an intrinsic rms scatter of the derived ages of 0.17 dex. The magnesium abundances [Mg/H] and the abundance ratios [Mg/Fe] are both strongly correlated with the central velocity dispersions of the galaxies, while the iron abundances [Fe/H] are uncorrelated with the velocity dispersions. Further, [Mg/H] and [Fe/H] are strongly anti-correlated with the mean ages of the galaxies. This in not the case for [Mg/Fe]. We have tested whether the slopes of the scaling relations between the global parameters for the galaxies (the Mg2-σ relation, the <Fe>-σ relation, the HβG-σ relation and the Fundamental Plane) are consistent with the relation between the ages, the abundances and the velocity dispersions. We find that all the slopes, except the slope of the Fundamental Plane, can be explained in a consistent way as due to a combination between variations of the mean ages and the mean abundances as functions of the velocity dispersions. The slope of the Fundamental Plane is "steeper" than predicted from the variations in the ages and abundances. Because of the correlation between the mean ages and the mean abundances, substantial variations in the ages and the abundances are possible while maintaining a low scatter of all the scaling relations. When this correlation is taken into account, the observed scatter of the scaling relations is consistent with the rms scatter in derived the ages and abundances at a given velocity dispersion.


The existing migration mechanism calls for a shared storage service between the source host and the destination host,which is a necessary condition for dynamic migration. This paper proposes a dynamic incremental migration including external memory based on Xen virtual Machine,by analyzing the principles and limitations of the existing migration mechanisms. This approach makes the migration between physical hosts do not rely on shared storage any more,and widens the scope of migration technology. Performance analysis and experiment results show that the approach is feasible.


A full-length DNA copy of cymbidium ringspot virus RNA was cloned downstream of a phage T7 promoter. In vitro transcripts had no extra nucleotides at the 3' terminus, and a 5' end likely to be precisely as in genomic RNA. Transcripts were infective when inoculated into test plants. Northern blots from inoculated plants revealed the presence of genomic and subgenomic RNAs, but not of satellite RNA. Virus particles isolated from infected plants had the same outward aspect and size as those of the wild-type virus and were decorated by an antiserum to CyRSV in immune electron microscopy tests.


&NA; Date Presented 3/30/2017 A phenomenological approach was applied to understand the experiences of three participants with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and visual inefficiencies. Five themes resulted: symptoms that complicated life, negative feelings during occupation, changes in coping, personal relationship impact, and lack of resource education. Primary Author and Speaker: Suzanne Vetter Additional Authors and Speakers: Katie Kruger Contributing Authors: Jan Stube, David Biberdorf


Abstract. This paper describes the ionospheric response to a geomagnetic storm beginning on 17 April 2002. We present the measurements of ionospheric parameters in the F-region obtained by the network of eight incoherent scatter radars. The main effects of this storm include a deep decrease in the electron density observed at high and middle latitudes in the pre-noon sector, and a minor enhancement in the density observed in the daytime sector at middle latitudes. Extreme plasma heating (>1000-3000 K) is observed at high latitudes, subsiding to 200-300K at subauroral latitudes. The western hemisphere radar chain observed the prompt penetration of the electric field from auroral to equatorial latitudes, as well as the daytime enhancement of plasma drift parallel to the magnetic field line, which is related to the enhancement in the equatorward winds. We suggest that in the first several hours after the storm onset, a negative phase above Millstone Hill (pre-noon sector) results from counteracting processes - penetration electric field, meridional wind, and electrodynamic heating, with electrodynamic heating being the dominant mechanism. At the lower latitude in the pre-noon sector (Arecibo and Jicamarca), the penetration electric field becomes more important, leading to a negative storm phase over Arecibo. In contrast, in the afternoon sector at mid-latitudes (Kharkov, Irkutsk), effects of penetration electric field and meridional wind do not counteract, but add up, leading to a small (~15%), positive storm phase over these locations. As the storm develops, Millstone Hill and Irkutsk mid-latitude radars observe further depletion of electron density due to the changes in the neutral composition.


The life expressions of models of insulation aging are functions of temperature and field as well as material parameters. A methodology is presented that allows these models to be applied to a cable geometry in which there is a radial variation of both field and temperature. In this way material parameters can be extracted from cable data. The methodology is illustrated using one such model and the parameters deduced from cable failure distributions are compared with those obtained for thin films. This comparison allows conclusions to be drawn about how the aging process affects specimens of the same material with different volumes


The paper is designed to study the rainfall patterns and its implications in Nigeria. Rainfall data from 28 stations for the period of 1970 – 2002 were collected from the Nigeria Meteorological Station, Lagos. While the vegetation map of Nigeria between 1973 and 1995 forms the basis of biodiversity change analysis. The results among others show that rainfall decreases from 1350 mm (1941–1970) to 1276 mm (1970–2002). While there is a general decrease in rainfall in Nigeria, the coastal area is experiencing slight increase. Apart from the general southward shift in rainfall patterns, the duration has also reduced from 80-360 (1941-1970) to 40-280 (1970-2002) rainy days per year. This has created ecological destabilisation and altered the pattern of the vegetation belt especially in the northern fringes of the country. The rainfall pattern has also enhanced wind erosion/desertification, soil erosion and coastal flooding in the north, east and coastal areas of Nigeria respectively. With these impacts, the paper therefore recommends some adaptive and mitigation measures that could help to revert the current situation. Keywords : changing climate, vegetation belts, rainfall pattern and shift Global Journal of Environmental Sciences Vol. 4(2) 2005: 139-145


The replication checkpoint signaling network monitors the presence of replication-induced lesions to DNA and coordinates an elaborate cellular response that includes ample transcriptional reprogramming. Recent work has established two major groups of replication stress-induced genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the DNA damage response (DDR) genes and G1/S cell cycle (CC) genes. In both cases, transcriptional activation is mediated via checkpoint-dependent inhibition of a transcriptional repressor (Crt1 for DDR and Nrm1 for CC) that participates in negative feedback regulation. This repressor-mediated regulation enables transcription to be rapidly repressed once cells have dealt with the replication stress. The recent finding of a new class of CC genes, named "switch genes," further uncovers a mode of transcription regulation that prevents overexpression of replication stress induced genes during G1. Collectively, these findings highlight the need for mechanisms that tightly control replication stress-induced transcription, allowing rapid transcriptional activation during replication stress but also avoiding long-term hyperaccumulation of the induced protein product that may be detrimental to cell proliferation.


Abstract We examined SOHO/LASCO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory/Large Angle Spectroscopic Coronagraph) C3 coronagraph images to search for the long-suspected population of small bodies, the vulcanoids, in heliocentric orbits interior to Mercury. We searched the entire vulcanoid region from 0.07–0.21 AU by visually blinking daily image averages co-registered on background stars. We found no vulcanoids to a moving object detection limiting magnitude of V=8.0, corresponding to objects 20 and 60 km in diameter (assuming Mercury-like albedos) at the inner and outer boundaries of the Vulcanoid Zone, respectively. This negative detection suggests that candidate objects apparently detected interior to 0.09 AU by Courten et al. (1976, Bull. Am. Astron. Soc.8, 504) were not permanent residents of that region, if real at all. Extrapolating from largest objects of 20 and 60 km to smaller-size objects with a Dohnanyi power-law size distribution (1969, J. Geophys. Res.74, 2531), this result implies that the present population of vulcanoids larger than 1 km in diameter is no greater than ∼1800–42000 objects.


Electricity energy generation and its supply through electricity networks is mainly organized in a top-down, centralized manner. Energy consumption can be predicted quite accurately at a high level, and this forms the basis for pre-scheduling the production by large power plants. Only few actors are involved in the generation, trade, and transportation of electricity, but this is changing rapidly. Renewable energy conversion (such as wind and solar energy, geothermal energy or as supplied by biomass systems at farms) will lead to a large amount of distributed and fluctuating (small) renewable energy sources throughout the grid, at homes, farms, and companies. The need of centralized electricity generation thus becomes more difficult to plan. This can lead to large problems and unstable electricity grids and therefore we have to develop approaches to deal with this increasing uncertainty. The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Control Technology (CT) will provide us many options for stabilizing electricity networks. Besides this also on the demand side new consumers such as electric vehicles and heat pumps (with large demand but also high flexibility or storage capacity) appear. The increasing share of decentralized renewable energy conservation in combination with the new types of consumers will drastically alter the operation of electricity systems. Smart Grids are developed by all major electricity distribution companies together with industry to cope with the dispersed electricity production by matching of supply and demand by smart ICT and CT. The future stricter sustainability demands will lead to offices with their own renewable energy sources and energy storage capacity. Office buildings will become a potential source of energy flexibility which can be offered to the grid as a Virtual Power Plant (VPP). In order to minimize uncertainty in the balance between energy supply and demand it is necessary to develop realistic user behavior, installations behavior and Smart Grid interaction. Monitoring the needs and preferences of users is necessary to predict future states of the demand for the SES (e.g. based on weather forecasts and user behavior). Automated prosumer support is needed to optimize interaction between offices and Smart grid.


Radio on free space optics has become a momentum in research because of its cost effectiveness and efficiency in transferring data at a high rate that is comparable to that for optical fiber media. The transmission data rate is limited in fiber due to dispersion and nonlinearity, such effects do not prevail in FSO communication links. The data rate depends mainly on the switching speed of the optoelectronic devices. With the characteristics of free space being random in nature, the performance of RoFSO is primarily governed by atmospheric conditions. In this report, the performance of the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal in free space is evaluated and compared against its counterpart radio frequency (RF) wireless communication systems. Simulations have been done on the atmospheric conditions by means of modeling the scintillation effect using log-normal distribution. The performance of the proposed system under two different base-band modulations, namely OFDM–PSK (phase shift keying) and QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) in weak turbulence conditions is studied. It is found that PSK performs better than QAM. Also the M-ary performance analysis shows that 3–5 dB improvement in the signal to noise ratio is obtained for


. The question of socio-psychological adaptation of Muslims from the countries of the near abroad in the metropolis of Moscow is raised. Describes the main ethnic, religious, and psychological characteristics of migrants who profess the religion of Islam. Possible ways of solving problems related to the successful adaptation of migrants are commented. Examples of the successful functioning of various centers, whose activities are directly related to the support of migrants in the Russian Federation. The article presents statistics of the Ministry of internal Affairs of Russia for 2018, reflecting the process of migration of residents of the former Soviet republics to Russia. Attention is focused on the processes of global migration of people, in particular Muslims from Central Asia, contributing to the development of the local population's negative attitude to visitors, in particular migrant phobia and Islamophobia. The article considers possible and acceptable algorithms of work with migrants in order to avoid such negativity and rapid adaptation of migrants in Moscow. It is emphasized that migration processes involve not only adults, but also children who need specialized support of employees of educational institutions and social services, whose activities should be aimed at teaching Russian as a foreign language, psychological and pedagogical support, familiarity with the cultural and historical heritage of the country. Attention is focused on the fact that a sense of tolerance and tolerance should be present in all people involved in migration processes. The importance of finding compromise solutions, joint efforts to solve the problems of immigrants is fixed.


Results from studies of nitrogenous exchange in a man during long exposure to the hyperbaric conditions (4.1, 4.6, 5.1 MPa, that corresponds to 400, 450 and 500 m) have shown that catabolism of proteins in man under conditions of high pressure of gas and aquatic environments is intensified due to the primarily intensive muscular work. The experimental ration which has been corrected from test to test by the results of studies practically completely satisfies the increasing demands of the organism in proteins, that is evidenced for by the stable content of total protein and its fractions in blood.


at the rate of 0.15% were diagnosed by trans-vaginal scan. Group A comprised 15 patients with embryonic/fetal cardiac activity and Group B comprised 6 patients without embryonic cardiac activity. Group A: 46% had intra-gestational injection of KCL and methotrexate with full resolution. 20% had Uterine Artery Embolisation followed by surgical evacuation. 10.3 % had systemic methotrexate 2 doses which later needed intra-gestational KCL and methotrexate. Only 3% had resolution with 2 doses of systemic methotrexate. 6.6 % had intra-gestational KCL/methotrexate with Foleys catheter tamponade. 6.6% had hysterectomy who presented at 18-20wks with intraperitoneal bleeding. 6.6 % lost follow up. Group B: 63.3 % had intra-gestational methotrexate and had full resolution. 20 % had systemic methotrexate with full resolution in 3-4 months duration. 16.6 % lost follow up. Conclusions: The incidence of CSP is increasing and previous Caesarean section is an important risk factor. There is a need to keep the primary Caesarean section rates at a low level. There is no consensus regarding the best treatment for CSP. Trans-vaginal ultrasound seems to be the best diagnostic tool to establish the diagnosis before 8wks. Medical management using intra-gestational injection of KCL with methotrexate appears to be an acceptable treatment in clinically stable women. The use of single treatment modalities like surgical evacuation or systemic methotrexate alone is not recommended.


Quercetin (QC) (5, 7, 3', 4' -tetra oxyflavonolol) is an ubiquitous flavonoid in many plants. The influence of QC on the growth of B16 melanotic melanoma in C57BL/6 mice and activity of some acid hydrolases in the tumor homogenates were investigated. Two series of experiments were carried out: In the first experimental group mice were inoculated s.c. with 10(6) of tumor cells (TC) suspended in 1 ml of saline. TC were obtained from the current serial passages. In the second series of experimental group mice were inoculated with melanoma cells preincubated 15 min. in different concentrations of QC. Mice of both series were divided into three subgroups. Mice of the first series were treated with QC i.p. every second day in a dose of 0.1 mg, 0.5 mg or 1.0 mg (total dose of 1.0 mg, 5.0 mg or 10.0 mg per mice). Animals of the second series did not obtain any treatment. After the nineteenth day of experiment the mice were killed, tumors excised and weighed. Tumor tissue pieces were homogenized for enzyme activity determination. Fragments of tumor tissue were taken for electron microscopy (EM) investigation. In mice injected i.p. with QC mean tumor weight was significantly higher than in control I. The mean tumor weight in the first experimental group was higher than in control from 170% to 196% and in the second experimental group from 69% to 147%. Enzymes activity was also higher in both experimental groups as compared to controls. Arylsulphatase activity in the first group was higher from 102% to 144% and in the second one - from 97% to 115% than in control I. Acid phosphatase activity was higher from 100% to 155% in the first experimental group and from 56% to 161% in the second one. Cathepsin D activity was greater from 133% to 333% and from 113% to 300%, respectively. EM studies revealed the presence of greater number of Golgi structures and primary lysosomes in experimental groups of tumors (mice treated with QC and mice with melanoma preincubated in QC). These results clearly indicate that QC significantly enhances melanotic melanoma growth and increases acid phosphatase and cathepsin D activity in these tumors. The mechanism of QC action on the melanotic melanoma is not fully understood and remains to be defined.


Telecommunication systems design and prototyping present a wide range of features such as fast product evolution and upgrading, embedded design constraints (low power, etc.), the increasingly complexity growing of norms and a real need of flexibility for open norms systems (MPEG4, UMTS, etc.). So, designers should have new design methodologies skills to perform at the same time systems design validation and mastering the sub-micronic technological integration constraints. This paper reviews design methods and trends for telecommunication systems.


Author(s): Mallory, Christy; Sears, Brad; Hasenbush, Amira; Susman, Alexandra | Abstract: Over three million LGBTQ youth in the United States could benefit from access to youth mentoring programs. Research shows that LGBTQ youth are overrepresented in the juvenile justice system, which may be due, in part, to selective enforcement of criminal laws against them.They also experience higher rates of family rejection, school harassment and bullying, homelessness, and a host of other factors related to their identity that put them at increased risk of involvement with the system. Youth mentoring organizations are designed to address the challenges at-risk youth face in their daily lives, but there is evidence showing that some organizations are unwelcoming of LGBTQ youth, and discriminate against them when they try to seek services.


Murine T and B splenocytes were incubated with antibodies that recognize CD3 or surface IgM. These antibodies induced proliferation of their respective target cells. Once stimulated via their receptors, the proliferation of both CD4+ and CD8+ T but not B lymphocytes was inhibited by class I-specific antibodies or their monovalent Fab' fragments. The inhibition of proliferation was dependent on the site on class I molecules recognized by the antibodies used, with the alpha 1/alpha 2 domains of H-2K molecules representing the major site for inhibition. Only soluble antibody-mediated proliferation could be inhibited by class I-directed antibodies; proliferation induced by CD3-specific antibody immobilized on plastic was not inhibited. Primary allogeneic MLR was also inhibited by class I-specific antibodies. In contrast, neither secondary allogeneic MLR, secondary Ag-specific responses, nor proliferation of CTL clones or tumor cell lines were inhibited by class I-specific antibodies. These results suggest a role for class I molecules in regulation of TCR/CD3- but not surface IgM-mediated cell signaling, which depends on the form of stimulation and the stage of differentiation of T cells.